1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording-medium image recording system, a recording-medium image recording apparatus, and a recording-medium image recording method, having image recording functions wherein inserting a small-sized recording medium (memory card, small-sized hard disk, etc.) into a main unit device of a television receiver (hereafter referred to as “TV receiver”) or a recording/playback device or the like places the device in a recording mode and picture and audio data is recorded in the recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
With conventional recording/playback devices such as VCR devices, the playback mode has been basically the primary function, exemplified by the commonplace arrangement wherein inserting a tape cassette into the VCR main unit automatically places the device in a playback mode.
As for recording, users who are not able to be physically present at the device to record a certain programs or the like use timer reservations or the like to program the device to automatically record the desired contents. There are methods for simplifying the timer recording procedures, by controlling recording images and audio from a receiver having program guide functions. In either case, the reservation is independently made with the receiver itself, and executed by the same receiver.
On the other hand, a reservation system has also be proposed wherein reserved program information is recorded in a small recording medium such as a memory card using a reservation recording device, and executed by inserting the small recording medium in a reservation executing device such as a TV receiver or a recording/playback device (e.g., Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-179837).
However, conventional arrangements have given priority to the playback part of the recording/playback functions, and there have hardly been any recording/playback devices which enter the recording mode simply by inserting a memory card. Further, there have been no systems which overwrite contents daily on the same memory card such as a particular news program which is broadcasted daily, for example.
Also, the arrangement disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-179837 involves reservation program information being recorded in a small recording medium such as a memory card or the like using a reservation recording device, and inserting this small recording medium into a reservation executing device such as a TV receiver or a recording/playback device to execute reservations, requiring the task of recording reservation information in the small recording medium beforehand. Also, image recording restrictions and image recording reservation restrictions, such as recording a manufacturer ID (or device ID) in the small recording medium beforehand so as to enable use only with a TV receiver or a recording/playback device having the same manufacturer or device ID, could not be realized with the conventional art. Further, a small recording medium such as a memory card or the like could not be overwritten by image recording.